1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to methods and systems using Personal Address Books (PABs) to provide services for telecommunication network users.
2. Description of Related Art
Modern telecommunication networks offer a wide variety of tools and services. The tools and services allow a user of these networks to store information concerning other users and to communicate with those other users. The tools and services include Personal. Address Books (PABs), call-following services, network-based speech recognition services, and e-mail, for instance.
A PAB may store information, such as names, addresses, telephone numbers, for instance, in a database for retrieval by the “owner” of the PAB. The PAB owner is typically the only user of the telecommunication network that can access and modify his or her PAB. The owner may be, for example, a person, an institution, a business, or any other entity. The PAB owner can often search his or her PAB for a name, phone number, or other information. Once the PAB owner obtains the desired information, the owner may use the information for a variety of purposes. For example, they may use the information to make a phone call to another user of the network.
call-following service may help establish a connection between a caller and a wireless device no matter where the wireless device is located in a network. For example, a caller from a fixed-location landline phone may wish to make a call to the wireless device. The wireless device can move anywhere within a wireless network. A call-following service automatically locates the wireless device and makes the connection between the caller (from the fixed-location landline phone) and the wireless device. The caller does not need to know the location of the wireless device. The caller also does not need to dial an access number. Instead, the caller only needs to dial the number of the wireless device, and the connection between the caller and the wireless device is automatically established by the call-following service.
A network-based speech recognition service is used by users to place calls by speaking phrases. For example, a user might say “Call John Smith,” and the speech recognition service places a phone call to John Smith. Alternatively, a user might say “Dial 555-1234,” which causes that telephone number to be dialed.
Conventional speech recognition services comprise modules to recognize speech phrases. They also contain a database where speech pattern information is stored. A voice recognition algorithm uses speech patterns and other parameters stored in the database to recognize voice messages. For example, speech patterns containing thousands of phrases spoken by a user are stored in the database. The phrases are the most common phrases encountered in any given language and constitute the phrases likely to be received from users of the speech recognition service.
Electronic mail (e-mail) is another well-known service that allows users of a telecommunication network to communicate with each other. For example, users of the network compose e-mail messages, which they send to other users. E-mail comprises a fast and reliable method to maintain communications with users across a network.
In addition to the tools and services mentioned above, users of a network can be grouped into “subscribing communities.” A subscribing community comprises a group of users of the network. The membership of the subscribing community may be determined using several criteria. For example, the users in the subscribing community may be associated with a specific local exchange. A subscribing community may also comprise a group of users subscribing to a set of services offered by a service provider.
Special billing arrangements may be associated with members of the subscribing community. For example, if the subscribing community comprises callers associated with a particular local exchange, a member of the subscribing community may pay a fixed charge to make calls to other members of the subscribing community (who are associated with the same local exchange). Calls made to users outside the subscribing community (i.e., to destinations outside of the local exchange) may have an additional fee that is charged to the customer.